In the spring of 1978, a group of graduate students and cave explorers undertook a five-month archaeology project in a deep sinkhole cavern largely unknown to the outside world. Visited once in the late 60s and next in 1971 by Barb MacLeod and local bushman Reuben Cox (who had found it previously), the cave was immediately recognized as the locus of extensive Classic Maya ritual practice within an awe-inspiring ceremonial space. Subsequent visits over several years by MacLeod (then attached to the Belize Department of Archaeology as a Peace Corps Volunteer), together with Department staff and visiting cavers from the US – led to further exploration and new discoveries in the great entrance chamber and the cathedral-like rooms downstream reachable via a deep underground river. Dozens of human sacrificial remains – both infants and adults – were found in two principal chambers.

The 1978 University of Texas-Austin project was the first formal archaeological investigation of Petroglyph Cave – named for the many geometric images carved in ancient times along the edges of a steep series of dry rimstone dams. Barb’s talk will share images, stories, and artifacts found in the cave during the years long before its transformation into a destination for high-adrenaline adventure tourism.